Selective attachment for addressing machines



Dec. 9,

E. A. GEIGER ET AL SELECTIVE ATTACHMENT FOR ADDRESSING MACHINES Filed Jan. 24, 1924 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 9,1924 1,518,912

E. A. GEIGER ET AL SELECTIVE ATTACHMENT FOR ADDRESSING MACHINES Filefid Jan. 24, 1924 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Ill.

ATTORNEY Dec. 9, 1924- E. A. GEIGER ET AL SELECTIVE ATTACHMENT FOR ADDRESSING MACHINES Filed Jan. 24, 1924 5 Sheets-Sheet :5

Dec. 9

E. A. GEHGER ET AL SELECTIVE ATTACHMENT FOR ADDRESSING MACHINES Filed Jan. 24, 1924 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 5 lINVENTOR5 ATTORNEY Dec. 9, 1924- 1,518,912

E. A. GEIGER ET AL SELECTIVE ATTACHMENT FOR ADDRESSING MACHINES FiledJan. 24. 1924 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 n my I am Iii u u' if a ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 9, 1924.

UNITED. STATES PATENT OFFICE.

vERWIN A..GEIGER, OF RIDGEWOOD, NEW JERSEY, AUGUST F. SCHRAEGIJE, OF RIDGE- WOOD, AND CHARLES E. ELLIS, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNORS TO RAPID ADDRESSING MACHINE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

SELECTIVE ATTACHMENT FOR ADDRESSING MACHINES.

Application filed January 24, 1924. Serial No. 688,118.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known. that we, ERWIN A. Gmenn, residing at Ridgewood, in the county of Bergen and State of New Jersey, AUcUsr F. SCHRAEGLE, residing at Ridgewood, in the county of Queens and State of New York, and CHARLES E. ELLIS, residing at Brooklyn, in the (Bounty of Kings and State of New York, all citizens of the United States of America, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Selective Attachments for Addressing Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates enerally to machines employing a series 0 address bearing cards, strips or plates for addressing letters, bills, envelopes," wrappers, magazines, catalogues or other articles designed for transmission through the mails, or for similar uses. More specifically it comprises an attachment which can be applied to such ma I chines of the particular type illustrated in U. S. Patent No. 1,256,509, granted E. D. Belknap, Feb. 19, 191.8,Wl1l0l1 has for its purpose the rendering of such machines capable of automatically selecting the addresses to be prlnted from the series of cards, strips or plates fed to it in succession from the usual magazine. Such machines-usually employ stencil cards bearing the addresses, and we will illustrate and describe such a machine, though the invention might be aplied to machines using type bearing plates. vhen a series of such address bearing cards are'fed through a machine of this type to which the present invention has been attached it may be arranged either to skip all cards except-those from which the operator desires to print the addresses, or it may print from all of the cards except certain ones which the operator desires to skip. Thus the attachment causes the machine to be selective in its action in either of the two ways mentioned. In the annexed five sheets of drawings illustrating one embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a perspectiveview of a machine of the type referred to with'the present invention applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a detail diagrammatic view, showing the main elements of the driving connections, to illustrate the timing of the printing and card feeding mechanisms.

Fig: 3 is a side elevationof the lower portion of the machine (parts being broken away and others shown in section) showing the elements of the attachment as applied to the operating treadles of themachines to cause it to skip all cards except those from which it is desired to print.

Fig. 4 is a horizontal section on line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a similar section showing the attachment as arranged tocause it to print from all cards except those which it is desired to skip.

. Fig. 6 is a detail vertical section of the printing mechanism of the machine showing. the selective mechanism which is attached thereto, the actuating electric circuit being open, but with the selective finger engaging a card which is ready tobe fed to printing position. I,

Fig. 7 is a similar view of portions of the same mechanism with the electric circuit closed.

Fig. 8 is a detail plan view of the cam for opening and closing the circuit with an axial section of the cooperating cam roller taken on line 8-8 of Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a dia ram of the electric circuits.

Fig. 10 is a detail plan view of the selective fingers forming a part of the electric circuit together with a portion of a notched stencil card on which they are operating shown in dotted lines, parts being broken away.

. Fig. 11 isa plan. view of the said stencil card, and, p p

Fig. 12 is a detail of the clutch throwout member.

Throughout the drawings like reference characters indicate like parts. The general structure and mode of operation of the addressing machine which is of standard form made under the above mentioned Belknap patent will first be described in part and cards which are fed to a printing mechanism, generally represented by B, along grooved card guides 36, extendin from the bottom of magazine A, throng printin mechanism B, to a receiving magazine The general structure of the machine comprises the uprights 1, 1, cross bars 3, 23 and table 2. Motive power is transmitted from electric motor 4, through belt 5 to grooved pulley 6, journaledon stud shaft 7. This pulley is thereby rotated in' a counter clockwise direction (looking at Fig. 1) and, through a clutch 10 (not shown in detail) rotates main crank (Figs. 1 and 2). This crank, through connecting rod 30, bell crank 31, (pivoted at 32) and link 73, reciprocates card feeding claws 74, which, on their forward travel to the right hand (Figs. 2 and 6), feed out the bottom card 43 from magazine A along guides 36, toward printing mechanism B. Said crank 70, through connecting rod 71, also reciprocates T-cain 46, which operates said printing mechanism. This cam 46 pivoted on shaft 45 which is held in housing 48, has'a cam slot 66 which engages roller 65 mounted on arm 64, of a lever 62-64, pivoted at 63 in housing 67, the other arm 62 of which lever is pivoted to yoke 60, which carries shaft 59 riuining in guides 61 and carrying the ink roller 58 under card 43 which is in printing position. No printing operation results, however, unless an article (such as an envelope, wrapper or catalogue) has been first placed by the operator over said card 43 and the platen head 55 has been swungdown upon it.

T-ca-m46 also operates said platen head 55, unless the operating mechanism therefor has been disabled, as will be now described. Platen 55, pivoted on the main frame at 54, is normally held up in the position shown in Fig. 6 by spring 56. On the depending arm 53 of said pla.ten,however, lever 51 carrying roller 50 is pivoted at. 52 and is normally held down in operative position by spring 57, so that said roller 50 engages the external face 49,-47 on said T-cam 46. Consequently, On each downward movement of 46 platen head 55is first swung down by cam face 49 upon the article to be printed (while the concentric portion of cam slot 66 is traveling over roller 65) and then held in this operative position by cam face 47 while the upper, tangential portion of cam slot 66 drives the ink roller 58 up and along the horizontal portion of guide 61 under the card 43, so that ink is forced through the stenciled portion of the card onto the envelope or other article then held down against the card by said platen head. During the upward travel of T-cam 46, the above described operations are reversed and card 43 is shoved out into receiving magazine C by the forward movement of the next card, 43, which is then shoved into printing position by the advance of card 43 which is being pulled out of magazine A by the card feed claws 74. p

The. timing of the card feed and inking impression operations which permits the shaft 45 an above stated sequence of operations results from the differing angularities of the connecting rods71 and 30 with reference to their common crank 7 O, as best shown in Fig. 2, and from the fact that the amplitude of motion of the card feed claws 74 is greater than the dimension of the cards 43 which is parallel to the line feed. Generally speaking the ink roller 58 is coming back to its position of rest while the card feed claws are going forward to feed out a card, but the card feed lags behind the T-cam 46 by an amount represented by the crank angle aJ-3 -.2', (Fig. 2) and, in addition to this, when the claws 74 do begin to feed out card 43 from the bottom of magazine A, said card moves some distance before striking the next card 43 ahead of it, and, through said card 43*, beginning to eject card 43 from printing position. By'that time roller 50 hasv run off section 47 of the cam face on 46 and is on section 49, so that platen head 58 has begun to lift and card 43 is free tomove.

Normally the operation of the machine is not continuous. The clutch 10 is normally thrown out of engagement at the end of each complete revolution by 'a throwout member 72 pivoted at the back of the main frame, as shown in Fig. 1, and when so thrown out, leaves the parts in the position of rest shown in Figs. 2 and 6, with cam member 46 and platen 55 raised, and with a card 43 in printing position ready for the next cycle. Each card 43 has an extension 43 on the forward part of its framel as shown in Fig. 11, on which is maintained a record of the customer whose address is given by the stencilized portion of the card, and as this extension projects from under the platen head 55 the operator can read said record, and if he then wishes to send the catalogue, or other article he is handling, to said customer he presses down on pedal 17 (Figs. 1 and 4) which is pivoted at 18 and connected by link 16 to thro-wout member 72. This permits the clutch 10 to re-engage and the machine then performs a. printing operation and continues to feed, and print from, the cards as long as pedal 17 is held down. Sp1'ing19 returns pedal 17 to raised position whenever the pressure of the operators foot is removed from said pedal and this puts the throwout member 72 back into engaglng position so that it disengages clutch 10 at the end of the cycle then in progress. If, however, the operator desires to skip anycard which has arrived at printing position under the platen head 55, he steps on pedal 104 while said head is still up. Pedal 104 is pivoted at 105 topedal 17 and, through link 107 pivoted to stud 25, itis connected to ski -lever 108 loosely pivoted on extending under roller 50. Such depression of pedal 104 lifts the left hand, hooked end of said lever 108 and that carries roller upward so that its supporting lever 51 is swung upward and this withdraws said roller from engagement with the outer face 4947, of T-cam 46. Consequently the platen does not descend when cam member 46 descends, although pedal 104, through action of cross-over finger 106 (Figs. 1 and 4) has also depressed pedal 17, disen aged throw-out member 72, permitted the c utch 10 to engage and so started the card feed and the ink roller into operation. As card 43 is, however, not held down against the ink roller during this particular cycle of operation there is no printing action and, at'the conclusion of the cycle, card 43 is kicked out, and the next card 43 takes its place in printing position.

76 is a pedal which, when depressed, disables the card feeding mechanism by means not shown, thus leaving card 43 in position indefinitely, so that, pedal 17 being also held down, any desired number of repeated printings may be obtained from that card.

The spring 119, connecting hooked lever 108 with link or connecting rod 107, serves as a retracting spring to lift pedal 104 and so normally hold hooked lever 108 in the position shown in Fig. 6. Also it is to be understood that repeat pedal 7 6 is so conricted to pivot shaft 18 that during the lastportion of the downward movement of pedal 76 it also turns shaft 18 and pedal 17 which is integral therewith, and consequently disengages throw-out member 72 sothat the printing mechanism may continue to operate in of the present invention, which resides inthe attachment now'to be explained, and which renders such operations of the addressingmachine to a certain extent automatic. That is to say, said attachment permits pedals 104 and 17 to be locked in depressed position so that all cards are fed through without rint-ing until one of the class which it is esired to rint from appears, whereupon the machme is stopped with that card in printing position, and, when started up again, prints from that card and continues feeding the succeeding cards through the machine without rinting from them until another one 0 that class reaches printing position, or it permits pedal 17 alone'to be locked in depressed position so that all cards are fed along and printed from until one of the class which it is desired to skip reaches printing position, whereupon the machine stops and gives the operator a chance to depress pedal 104 and feed said card through without printing. This depression of pedal 104 automatically locks pedal 17 again in depressed position,

repeated printings from the card 43 as long 1 but not 104, and the feeding and printing operations are resumed. In other words,-

the present invention relieves the operator from the dutyv of reading the records on card extensions 43 and practically does this for him, and also automatically acts in part as he would act if he had read said record.

Primarily the attachment comprises an automatically releasable lock or detent for edal 17, or for both pedals 17 and 104. uch a lock is shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5 consisting of a lever 20, pivoted on cross bar 23 and having a semicircular notch 21 on its outer end adapted to engage the pivot stud 25 projecting from pedal lever 104. The spring 19, being fastened at its upper end on lug 24 projecting from lever 20, forces the latter into engagement with pin 25 whenever pedal 104 is depressed and thereafter holds the latter depressed until the locking lever 20 is pulled away from pivot stud 25. Pedal 104 also holds pedal 17 down and the machine therefore runs on, feeding cards but not printing from them,

while the operator may be attending to a other work. This lock is automatically released on the arrival of a properly notched stencil card in position 43.

The particular means here shown for automatically releasing pedal lock 20 comprises solenoid 28, the core 27 of which is connected by wire 26 to lock 20. Circuit 29 for solenoid 28 derives current from any convenient source such as battery 33 (Fig. 9) and is normally open, being broken by the gap between finger 34 and contact panel 37. This gap is in shunt relation with the usual condenser 68 to reduce sparking and is closed by the periodical upward swing of plate 37 during the printing period of each machine-cycle unless a card 43 which has no notch in line with finger 34 intervenes between said finger and the upwardly swinging contact plate 37. If the particular card then in position 43, ready to be fed forward into printing position, has a notch 44 in its forward edge which comes under the particular selective fin er 34 which is then resting on the cards igs. 6 and 7) said finger lies in said notch as shown so that when contact panel 37 rises, the circuit is completed, as shown in Fig.7, latch 20 is pulled out of engagement with pivot stud 25, pedals 17 and 104 are pulled up by springs 19 and 119, clutch throw-out 72 is forcedinto operative position, cam roller 50 is released by hooked lever 108 so it may fall against cam face 49 and drop into operative position when T-cam 46 is later raised, and the lutch 10 will then throw out at the end of the cycle, leaving the parts in the position shown in Fig. 6 (the notched card which initiated this selective operation having been fed forward during completion of the cycle to printing position 43). The

operator, noting .the stoppage of the machine, places an article to be printed over the card, steps on pedal 104 to start the machine again, removes the article after it hasebeen addressed and then goes on with his other duties. The machine, with pedals 17 and 104 locked down resumes the feeding out of cards without printing from them, and this is continued until another card of the same class, i. e. one with a notch 44 which will. register with that finger/34' which is down in operative position, arrives at po sition 43.

If the operator wishes to take several impressions from anyone card so selected by the machine, he steps on pedals 76, instead of on 104, and holds that down until the desired number of impressions have been taken from that one card. Thereafter pressure on 104 resets the lock 20, and the card feeding without printing is resumed.

The preferred mechanism for controlling the circuit 29 comprises first, the series ofselective fingers 34 electrically connected in parallel pivoted at 35 on housing 8 and frictionally held in any position by contact springs 9, (Figs. 6 and 7). There are as many of these selective fingers 34 as there are classes of cards 43, and each card of each class has anotch at 44 or at one of the dotted line positions 44 (Fig. 11) which will come under the finger for that class when the cards are fed along guides 36. Secondly,

said controlling mechanism comprises the bellcrank support 40 for contact plate 37,

pivoted at 38 on casting 11 supported from cross bar 13, and carrying friction roller 39 on its lower arm. 14 is a screw fastening 11 to 13, and 15, 15, are screws fastening 37 to 40 with a layer of electrically insulated material 77 between. If desired, plate 37 may have contact buttons 7 5, 75, of harder metal inset in it for cooperation with selective fingers 34, and a condenser 68 (Fig. 9) may be inserted in the circuit 29 to reduce sparking. The roller 39 runs on cam 42 carried by ink roller yoke 60. When the inking apparatus is at rest, as shown in Fig. 6, retracting spring 41, connected to tail-lug 12 on casting 11, pulls bell-crank support 40 back and holds contact panel 37 away from the finger 34 if same happens to be resting'in notch 44 of a card of the class to be printed from which is in position 43. The engagement of roller 39 with the right hand slope of cam 42-also positively insures this result. Consequently the circuit 29 is 0 en and solenoid 28 is not energized until ink roller 58 has reached inking position on uide 61, at which time roller 39 has been eed from the right hand slope of cam face 42 and has been engaged bythe left hand slope the said cam face, as shown in Fig. 7. This latter engagement swings bell crank support 40 into the position there shown, which ifts however, T-cam 46 has swung down 'far' enough so that although hooked lever 108 th us releases roller 50, the latter cannot drop into operative position until the cycle'is completed and T-cam 46 again raised to the position of rest shown in Fig. 6 ready for the beginning of the next inking operation. It is understood, of course, that all of the selective fingers 34 are held in the raised position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 6 except the finger, or fingers, representing the class, or classes, of stencil cards which are to be selected for printing. Consequently only cards with the notches of that class meet an engaging finger when arriving at position 43.

Fig. 5. shows a modified arrangement of lock 20, by which the above described operation of the machine may be reversed, that is to say, the machine may be made to print from all the cards fed to it, except those of a certain class; i. e. those having a notch,44

so located as to receive the selective finger 34 which is down Q in operative position. This resultis accomplished by shifting latch 20 along across bar 23 so that it engages stud 125 on pedal 17, instead of stud 25 on pedal 104. Then, when the operator starts the machine by depressin pedal 17 to withdraw the throw-out mem er 72 and let the clutch engage, that pedal is locked down, but skippedal 104 is not depressed. Consequently the machine then continues printing from all cards fed to it until one with a properly placed notch permits circuit 29 to be closed,

energizing solenoids 28, tripping lock 20,

and stopping the machine at the end of the cycle with this card in printing position. The operator then momentarily depresses pedal 104, which causes the machine to start again, skipping that card, and also looks pedal 17 down, compelling the machine to go on printing all succeeding cards until another one of the class to be skipped appears.

Obviously more than one selective finger 34' may be left down in operative position if it is desired to print from cards'of two or more classes. In such case it might be deslred to sendone' kind of catalogue to one class of customers, another to another class, and soon. This kind of work is facilitated if tell-tale lamps such as 69 are placed one in circuit with each finger 34. These lam s may be placed near the separate piles of dlfferent catalogues, or they may be colored to correspond to the colors of the respective catalogue covers. Then when one of these lamps flashes and the machine stops the operator knows that a card containing the address of a customer who is to receive a catalogue from the pile corresponding to the flashing lamp is ready for the printing operation. Accordingly he inserts a catalogue from that pile under platen head 55, the address is printed thereon, and the card feeding and skipping operation is resumed until another card of one of the selected classes appears, its lamp flashes and the printing of the proper catalogue is effected as before. Thus also only blue catalogues may be ad dressed to jobbers, red ones to retailers, yellow ones to users, etc.,, and the lamps in circuit with the 1 fingers corresponding to these classes may be colored accordingly.

Mechanism of other than the electric type. might be substituted for that shown, so'long as it co-operates with the notches or other distinctive features on the cards to pull the latch 20, or other equivalent detent, to release the pedals 104 or 17, or both, or other controlling mechanisms, to stop the machine when a card of the predetermined class reaches printing position, which is the distinctive operating feature of the invention. By the expression stop the machine, above and hereinafter employed, we mean bringing all the mechanism to a condition of rest, so that the operator must intervene and decide what operation the machine is next to perform and again start it into action for the performance of the desired function. This procedure is entirely different from that followed. with other addressing machines, in which other machines the printing mechanism alone is temporarily disabled, while other units of the mechanism continue in operation.

The advantages of the invention comprise its simplicity, cheapness and the ease of its application to'the hundreds of machines of the type here shown which are now in use, as it is obvious that no element of the old machines need be'removed, or changed, before the attachment is applied. All that is necessary to make any of these standard machines automatic is to add to it the few elements of the selective mechanism above described. When a series of adjacent machines are so equipped, one operator can run them all, directing his attention first to one and then to another as it stops with a card of the predetermined class in printing position.

Having described our invention, we claim:

1. An attachment for addressing machines of the type wherein a series of address bearing strips are fed to and through a cooperating printing mechanism which may be adjuste to either print from said strlps or to ski 1 them, which attachment comprises a mec anism adapted to stop the machine, a device controlling said mechanism, and actuating "means for said device adapted to be thrown into operation whenever a strip of a particular class reaches printing position.

2. A combination such as set forth in claim 1 in which the classification of said address bearing strips is denoted by the location of a notch in the margin thereof.

3. An attachment for addressing machines of the type wherein a series of address bearing strips having differently located notches in their edges are fed to and through a cooperating printing mechanism which may be adjusted to either print from said strips, orto skip them, which attachment comprises, in combination, a )lurality of selective. fingers, certain of w ich fingers may bear upon the address bearing strips being fed to the printing mechanism and are adapted to drop into the notches in those strips of certain predetermined classes, and means controlled by said fingers for stopping the machine when a card of any such class reaches printing position.

4:. A combination such as set forth in claim 3 in which said controlled means comprises two pedals and connections therefrom, one of which is adapted to stop the machine after completion of any current cycle of operations, while the other is adapted to disable the printing mechanism only, a lock adapted to hold the first of said pedals out of operative position, or said first mentioned pedal out of operative position and said last mentioned pedal in operative position, and means for tripping said lock when one of said selective fingers engages a notch in one of said address bearing strips.

5. A combination such as set forth in claim 3 in which said controlled means comprises a. pedal adapted, when raised, to stop depressed, to disable t e printing mechanism only, means by which the depression of the last mentioned pedal also depresses the figst mentioned pedal, a lock adapted to hold either of said pedals depressed, and means for tripping said lock whenever one of said selective fingers engages a notch in one of said address bearing strips.

6. An attachment for addressing ma.- chines of the type wherein a series of address bearing strips having differently located notches in their. edges are fed to and through a cooperating printing mechanism, a pedal and connections such that when said pedal is in raised position the machine will be stopped at the end of any current cycle of operations but when it is depressed the machine continues to operate, a second pedal and connections such that when said second pedal is depressed the printing mechanism only will be disabled, and means whereby the depression of the second pedal also depresses the first mentioned pedal, which attachment comprises, in combination, a plurality of selective fingers, certain of which may bear upon the stripsbeing fed to the printing mechanism, a lock which may be connected to the lock while the coils thereof are included in an electric circuit which may be closed when a selective finger engages a notch in one of said address bearing strips.

8. An attachment for an addressing machine of the type in which a series of address bearing stencil cards having notches in their edges are fed to a printing mechanism in which an inking roller is reciprocated under the card which is in printing position, and which also comprises means for disconnecting the main driving mechanism when any current cycle of operations,

is completed, as well as means for disabling the printing mechanism only, which attachment comprises, in combination, a plurality of selective fingers, certain of which may rest on the cards being fed to the printing mechanism, a swinging contact member located under said cards and adapted to make contact with any selective finger resting in a notch therein, connections by which on reciprocation of the said ink roller said swinging member is raised into position for such contact, an electric circuit, one terminal of which is connected to said swinging member and the other terminal of which is connected to the* selective fingers, and mechanism operated by the current in said circuitadapted to actuate said main driving disconnecting means.

9. A combination such as set forth in claim 8 in which the said electrically operated mechanism is also adapted to put out of operative osition the said printing mechanism disa ling means.

10. In a mechanism for automatically controlling the operation of an addressing machine, which machine employs an inking mechanism cooperating with a series of address bearing strips having notches in their edges, the combination, with said inking mechanism, of an electric circuit and devices controlled thereby adapted to modify the series of operations performed by said machine, a finger resting on the upper surfaces of the address bearing strips passing through said machine adapted to drop into certain of said notches and constituting one terminal of said circuit, a swinging member, constituting the other terminal of said circuit, adapted to make contact with the said finger when the latter is resting in one of said notches, and means whereby the movement of said swinging member into and out of contact position is controlled by the said inking mechanism.

11. An attachment for addressing ma chines of thetype wherein a series of address bearing strips are fed successively to. a cooperating printing mechanism which is adapted to be controlled by the operator so as to handle each card in any one of a. variety of ways, which attachment comprises automatic mechanism capable of cooperating with a certain class of said strips to stop the machine whenever a strip of that class reaches printing in position but before the printing cycle to be performed therewith is begun, whereby the operator is then given an opportunity either to insert into the printing mechanism an article to be addressed from said strip and proceed with the printing operation or to cause the machine to otherwise dispose of said strip,

12. An attachment for addressing machines of the type wherein a series of address bearing strips are fed successively to a cooperating printing mechanism which may be temporarily disabled at the option of the operator while said strips are be? ing fed through it, which attachment com-- prises mechanism capable of cooperating with certain of said strips to stop the feed mechanism and throw the printing mechanism into gear whenever one of said certain strips arrives at printing position, whereby the operator is then given an opportunity to insert into the printing mechanism an article to be addressed and there- -up0n restart the machine and print on said .bearing strips divided into classes, the

members of one or more of which classes each having a predetermined distinctive physical classification feature characteristic of that class, mechanism adaptedwhen in gear to cooperate with each of said strips in a printing operation, apparatus for feed ing all of said strips consecutivelyto said printing mechanism, means under control of the operator for throwing either said printing mechanism or said feeding apparatus into or out of operation, and means cooperating with the classification feature borne by a selected class of the strips to automatically throw the printing mechanism into gear when one of that class of strips arrives in printing position, whereby, when the operator has initially disabled the rinting mechanism on starting the machine with the feeding apparatus alone in action all said strips will be fed through the printing mechanism without producing any printing action until one of said strips having the predetermined classification feature reaches printing position.

14. An attachment for addressing machines of the type wherein a series of address bearing strips are fed successively to a printing mechanism, which strips are divided into a plurality of classes, the strips of certain of which classes have specially located notches adapted to serve as distinctive classification features, which attachment comprises, in combination, an electric circuit, a lurality of selective fingers, eaclrone of w ich is adapted to drop into the notches in a particular class of said strips and all of which are connected in multiple with one terminal of said circuit, a plate connected to the other terminal of said circuit and adapted to make contact i with any one of said fingers which may have dropped into one of said notches, a source of electric current in said circuit, mechanism adapted to stop the machine whenever said circuit is closed, and separate electrical tell-tale devices connected one in series with each of said fingers, whereby, when the machine is stopped by the dropping of a finger into the notch on one of said strips, the operator is advised by the corresponding tell-tale device of the particular class to which said strip belongs, and may select the article to be printed therefrom accordingly. v

15. A combination such as set forth in claim 14 in which the tell-tale devices consist of distinctively colored incandescent electric lamps.

ERWIN A. GEIGER. AUGUST F. SCH-RAEGLE. CHAS, E. ELLIS. 

